Tone Knob: Valuable or not?

MattHenry

Keith, that's a great looking Campellone! Thanks for posting the pic. I just saw knobs like those as part of a kit at Archtop.com and I was suggesting to Craig earlier today that we go with a setup just like yours.

Keith Murch

boze wrote: »

Keith, that's a great looking Campellone! Thanks for posting the pic. I just saw knobs like those as part of a kit at Archtop.com and I was suggesting to Craig earlier today that we go with a setup just like yours.

Thanks boze. I had a Campellone Deluxe before this one. The Deluxe had the volume and tone controls above one-another (see pic) and I found them in the way when I picked. So, when I ordered my Special, I asked Mark to put them side by side, along the bottom of the pickguard. This works better for me. Mark said he likes this placement better and will start doing them this way from now on.
Keith

MattHenry

That Deluxe is similarly complected to my Triumph with the black pickup and tortoise pickguard. I like the minimal size/shape of the pickguard on the Deluxe and the double white lines too.

Keith Murch

boze wrote: »

That Deluxe is similarly complected to my Triumph with the black pickup and tortoise pickguard. I like the minimal size/shape of the pickguard on the Deluxe and the double white lines too.

Very nice!
Keith

MattHenry

Keith, which is tone and which is volume in that side by side on the bottom arrangement?

Keith Murch

boze wrote: »

Keith, which is tone and which is volume in that side by side on the bottom arrangement?

Boze: if you are referring to the Sunburst Campellone....in playing position the volume is the front control and the tone is the back. This seems logical, because that is the way the controls are in electric Gibsons. I don't think it feels right to have them reversed. On the blonde Campellone in the picture, the volume control was the one closest to the strings. That also seems logical to me, but the volume control can get in the way in that position. When I have bought guitars that came with just a volume control, I had to move it forward or up, and put the tone control where the volume pot was. Hope that helps.
Keith

MattHenry

Thanks, Keith! I forgot there were two!!

JSanta

I still get confused when I play my archtop which is which! They are mounted underneath the finger rest, so I try not to give myself a hard time about it. I need to upgrade mine in the near future, very little play in the tone wheel.

MattHenry

I just got my guitar back a few days ago. Craig Bumgarner did a great job shaping, polishing, and installing the pickguard.

The electronics are also a nice upgrade, but the pots are practically useless. The tone pot came half broken so it works backwards (counter-clockwise makes the tone brighter). Worse, both pots are very non-linear, with about 75% of their effectiveness squished into turning the knob from 10 to 8.

The hardware was the "Classic Control Kit" from Archtop dot com. It cost $70 plus $10 shipping so I'm disappointed in the functionality of the pots.

Craig says swapping them out is no big deal. Do you guys have any recommendation for replacement pots? Note that these are smaller pots than standard which lets the pickguard ride a bit closer to the body.

Here's a photo of the new pickguard and electronics:

Buco

Try reversing the pot leads to fix the reverse operation issue.
There are potentiometers that are made reversed to make them "correct" when wired into left handed guitars.

The other issue usually stems from using logarithmic or audio pots for tone control and the value of the pot could affect it too. Now I'm not an expert in these things to offer you an actual solution but this could stir you in the right direction. Can you find out the type and values of potentiometers you got?